Ten killed as Russian missile destroys crowded restaurant

Twin sisters of 14 were among at least 10 people killed by a Russian missile strike on a packed pizza restaurant in eastern Ukraine.

Yuliya and Anna Aksenchenko died along with a girl aged 17 and seven others. The blast also wounded 61 as families enjoyed an evening meal in Kramatorsk.

The city’s Ria Lounge Bar was destroyed and emergency workers fought into the early hours yesterday to rescue survivors from under twisted steel beams and masonry.

The local education department said: “It is with sadness and unbearable pain we report the death of two Aksenchenko sisters, Yuliya and Anna, students of Kramatorsk Primary School No24.

“This year they graduated from the eighth grade, and on 4 September they should have celebrated their 15th anniversary. A Russian rocket stopped the beating of the hearts of two angels.”

Mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko said the body of a boy was among the casualties pulled from the rubble.

An eight-month-old baby was one of the dozens of injured.

President Volodymyr Zelensky branded Russia’s leaders “gangsters who have seized power” and are now “terrorising the world”.

He told his MPs that Kremlin tyrant President Vladimir Putin and his henchmen would end up at the International Criminal Court.

Mr Zelensky said earlier: “Such manifestation of terror proves over and over again to us and to the whole world that Russia deserves only one thing as a result of everything it has done – defeat.”

Ukrainian officials believe the venue was hit by an S-300 anti-aircraft missile and they called the attack “indiscriminate”.

Kyiv counter-intelligence teams arrested an “enemy agent” yesterday and accused him of helping Russia direct the attack.

The Security Service of Ukraine claimed a sleeper spy filmed the restaurant’s customers and sent a video to Russian intelligence.The SSU added: “The enemy agent is a resident of Kramatorsk, an employee of the local gas transportation company.”

Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the blast damaged 18 multi-storey buildings, 65 houses, five schools, two nurseries and a shopping centre plus two administrative and recreational buildings.

The radar-guided S-300 was built to hit fast-moving targets and is considered highly inaccurate in use against ground targets.

A second missile landed on the city outskirts, injuring five people.

The Ria Lounge was popular with locals, aid workers, soldiers and media staff. Financial Times writer Christopher Miller said “every correspondent covering the war has probably dined” at the Ria. Author and journalist Colin Freeman said he was there minutes before the blast but was called to an urgent meeting in the city.

Ruslan, 32, was about to start his chef’s job when the missile struck: “There was a good crowd. I was standing there, and then I was buried. I was lucky.” Natalia wept as she said her half-brother Nikita, 23, was near the pizza oven. She added: “They can’t get him out.”

Kramatorsk – 18 miles from the front line and once home to 150,000 people – is the largest eastern city still held by Kyiv.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov claimed: “Russia doesn’t hit civilians, only military targets.”